ALBANY - The iconic Maid of the Mist will be much different later this year, thanks to an upgrade by Burger Boat Co. of Manitowoc.

The tour boats that ride close to the bottom of Niagara Falls are switching over to two new all-electric, zero-emission passenger vessels constructed in the U.S.

The new boats should be up and running in September and replace two diesel-fueled vessels that traverse the waters between New York and Canada.

The boats are being built by Burger Boat Co. and the modules will be transported later this month to Niagara Falls.

More than 1.6 million tourists ride the two boats each year, and it is one of North America's longest running tourist attractions.

Maid of the Mist first opened in 1846, and it has been ridden by many famous people, including the late Princess Diana and her sons in 1991, and former President Jimmy Carter and his wife in 1996.

“Maid of the Mist tours of the world-famous Niagara Falls waterfalls and of the Niagara River Gorge are a signature tourism attraction of western New York,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday in a statement announcing the change.

“The new zero-emission boats will continue that proud tradition, while enhancing our efforts to make New York state a premier environmentally friendly tourism destination.”

Christopher Glynn, president of the Maid of the Mist, said switching to a cleaner technology for the boats made sense.

“The new vessels will carry our guests to the base of Niagara Falls, one of the world’s largest sources of clean hydroelectric power," he said in a statement.

A rendering of the new Maid of the Mist in Niagara Falls shows how it will be electric powered starting in September 2019.(Photo: Governor Andrew Cuomo's office)

They will then be lowered to the Maid of the Mist's dry dock and maintenance facility for assembly.

The company hopes to put them into service in mid-September, then soon after retire the two existing boats, Maid of the Mist VI and Maid of the Mist VII, that have been in operation since the 1990s.

The new boats will each have lithium ion battery packs and an onshore charging system, which will allow for a seven-minute recharge to bring the batteries to 80 percent capacity.

By being electric-charged, the new boats will have no engine noise or exhaust fumes, Cuomo's office said.

The Maid of the Mist was in financial trouble in 2012, but the state worked out an agreement with the owners to use the state's former Schoellkopf Power Station site to store the boats.

In exchange, the Maid of the Mist Corp. agreed to invest $32 million into its operation and increase license payments to the state that will total $105 million over 30 years.